Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa

We, the Heads
of State and Government of Member States of the African Union, meeting
in the Third Ordinary Session of our Assembly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,
from 6-8 July 2004:

Reaffirming our commitment to the principle of gender
equality as enshrined in Article 4 (I) of the Constitutive Act of
the African Union, as well as other existing commitments, principles,
goals and actions set out in the various regional, continental and
international instruments on human and women's rights, including the
African Platform for Action (1994), the Beijing Platform for Action
(1995), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW - 1979), the African Plan of Action to Accelerate
the I mplementation of the Dakar and Beijing Platforms for Action
for the Advancement of Women (1999); the Outcome Document of the Twenty-third
Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session
on the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (2000); and
the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on
the Rights of Women in Africa (2003);

Standing by our decision on gender equality taken
at the Inaugural Session of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and
Government in July 2002 in Durban, South Africa;

Commending the progress that we have made so far in
addressing issues of concern to the women of Africa, while also recognizing
that major challenges and obstacles to gender equality still remain;

Deeply concerned about the negative impact on women
and on the development of our countries of issues such as HIV/AIDS,
conflict, poverty, violence against women, women's exclusion from
politics and decision-making, and illiteracy;

Expressing grave concern regarding the high incidence
of HIV/AIDS among girls and women, and the disproportionate burden
on women to care for and support those infected and affected by the
disease, and re-affirming the need to systematically address all these
issues at all levels of society;

Aware that AIDS orphans and older people, especially
grandmothers, shoulder excessive responsibility for providing care
for those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, most times without support of any sort either
from the society or from the State;

Re-committing to the goals and strategies set out
in the Abuja Declaration on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Related
Infectious Diseases which we adopted in April 2001 during our Summit
which was kindly hosted by the President, Government and People of
the Federal Democratic Republic of Nigeria;

Conscious that, while women bear the brunt of conflicts
and internal displacement, including rapes and killings, they are
largely excluded from conflict prevention, peace-negotiation, and
peace-building processes;

Taking cognizance of the adverse impact of gender
inequality on the economic growth of Africa and the fact that African
women bear a disproportionate burden of poverty;

Recognizing that extreme poverty cannot be addressed
without concerted efforts to improve women's access to resources and
that access to resources increases the level of spending, especially
on food and children's education;

Aware that women's literacy and improved girls' education
spin off a wide range of benefits including improving the welfare
of the family and th~ quality of the labour force, increasing the
tax base, and boosting levels of agricultural output;

Noting that, while women's participation in the labour
force has increased significantly over the past two decades, wide
disparities still persist between men and women in terms of access
to employment and remuneration;

Conscious of the fact that low levels of women's representation
in decision-making increase poverty and impact negatively on women's
ability to derive full benefit from their participation in the economies
of
their countries;

Also conscious that under-representation of women
in decision-making structures reflects the level of maturity of the
democratic process in that state, and is an indication that a society
is less democratic and less egalitarian;

Concerned that religion and culture are often erroneously
used as a justification and an excuse for perpetrating and perpetuating
discrimination against women;

HEREBY AGREE
TO:

1. Promote
gender specific economic, social, and legal measures aimed at combating
the HIV/AIDS pandemic, make treatment and social services available
to women at the local level more responsive to the needs of families
that are providing care, and increase budgetary allocations in these
sectors so as to alleviate women's burden of care;

2. Undertake concerted
action to provide support for those who care for people infected and
affected by HIV/AIDS, especially women, children and the elderly who
in most cases are grandmothers;

3. Urge the full
participation and representation of women in the prevention, resolution,
and management of conflicts in Africa;

4. Extend the gender equality principle that we have
adopted regarding the Commission of the African Union to all the other
organs of the African Union, to the Regional Economic Communities,
and to the national and local levels;

5. Mount, within the next one year, a campaign against
the recruitment of child soldiers and abuse of girl children as wives
and sex slaves, and thus bring an end to this inhuman treatment of
our children;

6. Lead from the front sustained public campaigns
against gender based violence for the protection of women at the national
level;

7 Galvanize national legislative processes to promulgate
and enforce specific laws relating to violence against women in all
its forms;

8. Deploy all
efforts to expand the gains already made in bridging the gender disparity
in education and to meet that Millennium Development Goal which seeks
to close the gender gap in primary education by the year 2005;

9. Actively promote
the implementation of legislation to strengthen women's land, property
and inheritance rights including their rights to housing;

11. Sign and ratify, in the next one year, instruments
aimed at promoting and protecting women's rights, especially the Protocol
to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights
of Women in Africa Women, and ensure their implementation;

12. Strengthen
the gender machineries in our countries and provide them with enough
human and financial resources to enable them to carry out their responsibility
of promoting and tracking gender equality;

13. Consider
the establishment of a Special Investment Fund for Women to support
women entrepreneurship, possibly for management by the African Development
Bank

14. Be agents
of change and personalty undertake and champion advocacy campaigns
to address all these issues, support national and regional processes
and mechanisms, and regularly provide each other with updates on progress
during our ordinary sessions.